Accreditation of the SAS institutes is approaching

The coronavirus pandemic has also postponed the accreditation of institutes of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. The latter was dedicated to the period between 2012 to 2015, this year the time span will be 2 years longer, as it will focus on the focus on the years 2016 to 2021. The process has already begun, starting with the Principles of Regular Evaluation of the SAS Scientific Organizations for the period 2016 – 2021 being approved by Assembly of Slovak Academy of Sciences. It was done in October 2019. Amended process has taken place in December 2021, however the essential features remained. Foreign experts will again evaluate three scientific sections of the SAS in three panels. Their decision will be based on self-assessment questionnaires with results of the past period and a vision for the future. These will be submitted by the scientific organizations of the SAS this year by the end of May. Foreign experts and experts in the scientific field of the evaluated organizations will then during the summer prepare respective reviews. The face-to-face evaluation of the organizations will take place in the autumn and final decision will be made by the end of the year. Similar to past evaluation, appeals will be possible. The final results will be approved by the Presidium of SAS at the beginning of next year.

Panel assembly

As said by head of the accreditation committee prof. RNDr. Peter Samuely, DrSc., who is also vice president for science, research and innovations of the SAS, the preparation began at the time when Assembly of Slovak Academy of Sciences decided to make some changes to the policies, based on the experience gained during the latter evaluation of the scientific organizations of the Academy. “Changes concerned mainly the form of final evaluation. It should be more detailed. While last time the institutes were divided into four categories based on their results, this time the Assembly has decided that there will be seven categories: A, A / B, B, B / C, C, C / D and D,” he says. He emphasizes, that the evaluation has already begun, since prof. Marja Makarow of University of Helsinki was appointed as a head evaluator (more on that in SAS News 1/2016, External evaluation is important for science). Based on her suggestion and consultation with the Presidium of SAS, the so-called metapanel has been appointed. Besides prof. Makarow, three heads of the panels for individual departments will be its members. These are: professor Helmuth Weissert (ETH Zürich), professor Toivo Maimets (University of Tartu) and professor Wim van den Doel (University of Leiden). And two more experts (more information elsewhere). “Metapanel met online last year at the end of November – together with our accreditation committee – and focused on the self-assessment questionnaire, which will be filled in by the academy’s institutes and with which the evaluators will work,” explains professor Samuely. It is important to emphasize, that the Accreditation committee of the SAS has no common member with the international panel of experts (which – similarly to previous evaluation – will consist only of foreign experts). Accreditation committee of the SAS is only auxiliary body of the Presidium of SAS, that coordinates accreditation process of its institutes. As prof. Samuely pointed out, its members do not evaluate the institutes at any point of the process. It consists of vice presidents for each scientific sections, chairmen of three divisions of the Assembly of Slovak Academy of Sciences, three representatives of the council of directors for scientific sections and three independent experts, scientists of SAS. Each of them from different scientific section. While members of the metapanel received their appointment decrees in November, at the end of last year and at the beginning of the current one, members of the Accreditation committee, especially heads of the individual scientific sections (together with prof. Makarow) have already searched for suitable members to their teams. “We have found them but they have not been appointed yet,” said professor Samuely in January for the Academia magazine. “It will probably be done by the Presidium of SAS during its next meeting.” According to the evaluation principles, each panel for scientific section should consist of at least three members, and the total number should be odd. According to the head of the accreditation committee, there will be five panelists for each science department.

The entire article can be found in the Academia magazine.